South Carolina Prepares for Georgia With a Lunch-Time Brawl At the Student Union

Oh, those wacky, dedicated football players. The fight took place at Russell House, which despite it's quaint evocation of an antebellum bed and breakfast, is evidently a main dining hall on campus. Five football players scrapped with five "non-students," who were evidently impressed by the Zagat Guide's rating of the Russell House and had to stop by. The resulting brawl left tables overturned. Campus police arrived fifteen minutes after the fight, presumably so late because the entire police force has been assigned to Gamecock quarterback Stephen Garcia. Don't ask Steve Spurrier what happened, he wasn't there. The State newspaper has Spurrier's response:

“You need to call the university police and ask them what happened. I wasn’t there,” Spurrier said. “I’ve just heard second-hand reports that there was a little fracas, a little tussle between some people we don’t know and some of our football players. ... We’ll let the police and university tell us exactly what happened and what we need to do.”

So was it a fracus or a tussle? A donnybrook or a scuffle? The world awaits. The five players involved were (right now South Carolina fans are holding their breath and turning red) "receiver C.C. Whitlock, offensive lineman Terrence Campbell, defensive lineman Melvin Ingram and defensive backs Akeem Auguste and Antonio Allen." You can exhale now, none of these guys are that important. They're the same five guys who weren't even good enough to play in a loss to Vandy. As if this weren't enough, the article is rife with speculation that this incident was "gang-related." Thanks to the Gamecock student newspaper's interview of Biology student Tommy Nguyen, that speculation seems fairly well grounded in truth. "Nguyen overheard the instigators of the fight shouting and yelling as they hit the victim. What Nguyen overheard indicated the fight may have been gang-related. "At first I thought [I heard] 'Bloods' or something like that. Once they started hitting him they kept saying 'What's up Red?'" Nguyen said.

Five players involved in lunchtime brawl [The State] All out brawl breaks out in GMP [Daily Gamecock]